The invention relates generally to an arrangement for conveying overlapping photosensitive articles.
More particularly, the invention relates to an arrangement for conveying a pair of overlapping photosensitive sheets into a bath of a diffusion developing apparatus while maintaining the sheets at a distance from one another.
A known arrangement for conveying a pair of overlapping photosensitive sheets while maintaining a distance between the same includes a pair of conveying rollers. Each of the rollers has a central portion of reduced diameter. A guide element is provided to separate the sheets and includes a plate which resembles an isosceles triangle. The guide plate is located downstream of the rollers and is arranged in such a manner that the apex confronts the rollers while the base is remote from and extends parallel to the rollers. A tongue projects upstream from the apex and passes between the central portions of the rollers, that is, the portions of the rollers having reduced diameters. On both sides, the guide plate is formed with a ledge which extends along the base of the guide plate. The ledges serve to space the photosensitive sheets from one another.
A conveying arrangement of the type described above is known from the German Offenlegungsschrift No. 20 43 693 as well as the German Gebrauchsmuster No. 70 36 989. In these known arrangements, the tongue is of one piece with the triangular guide plate.
The known conveying arrangements have a disadvantage which stems from the relatively high flexibility of modern photosensitive materials. This disadvantage resides in that the leading edges of the photosensitive sheets abut against the front edges of the triangular guide plate in the transition region between the tongue and the guide plate so that further advancement of the sheets is prevented. The sheets thus become damaged and cannot be subjected to further processing. When processing sheets of different width, it is also found that the lateral edges of wide sheets in particular are readily creased by the conveying rollers.